In a tumultuous year for arts funding, Meg Symsyk has been at the forefront of ensuring that Canadian talent and creative businesses have the support they need to thrive. Throughout the last two years, the president and CEO of FACTOR — one of the most important funders of music in the country — has been a fighter for the Canadian music industry and Canadian culture.That support hasn’t wavered amidst multiple challenges, including the theft of nearly $10 million from its Scotiabank account. The music industry rallied to support while Symsyk fought in court for corporate accountability, and FACTOR settled with the bank. Throughout it all, Symsyk has ensured that FACTOR has continued — and in many ways, increased — its support. She advocated to ensure the renewal of the Canada Music Fund, announced $2 million in funding for live music through its Promoter Program and Festival Program and fought for Canadian curators and Canadian content during the implementation of the Online Streaming Act. After much debate, the federal government announced this week that it will invest $600 million in audio and audiovisual sectors, including FACTOR, marking the importance of investing in Canadian culture and IP amidst threats to sovereignty. She’s also a vital member of the team behind Rush, whose reunion tour is one of the most anticipated of the summer.

In the “elbows up” era of Canadian culture, the 2026 Juno Awards in Hamilton were a standout, star-studded celebration of the country’s musical legacy and talent. CARAS president Allan Reid celebrated his full-circle moment, returning to the city where he celebrated his first Junos at the helm of the organization in 2015 from his career as a veteran record executive. Its lineup reflected Canadian music milestones, legends and history — past, present and future, drawing 1.8 million streaming viewers and 2.6 million on network television. Where the ceremony has sometimes struggled with attracting A-list talent, this year’s brought in Rush for their first-ever Junos performance and the surprise early start of their reunion tour, a celebration of icon Joni Mitchell with Prime Minister Mark Carney and the biggest fish of them all, Drake, who set aside old slights long enough to send a special tribute to Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductee Nelly Furtado. At the helm, Reid has helped evolve the Junos into a platform beyond the ceremony to serve emerging talent to those star artists through its stated four pillars: to educate, develop, celebrate and honour Canadian artists. That extends to the music education charity Musicounts, where he makes a year-round impact.

Artificial intelligence has become a hot topic in the music industry, and Margaret McGuffin has become one of the key voices ensuring that the technology is implemented fairly and equitably. In her work at Music Publishers Canada, McGuffin works tirelessly to advocate for the publishing sector. That sector is responsible for countless songs heard across streaming platforms, social media, film, television and games. It’s quietly one of the biggest export opportunities for Canadian music. Currently, 82% of the revenue for Canadian independent music publishers comes from foreign sources. That was just 28% two decades ago. Her work has taken her to the House of Commons and the National Summit on Artificial Intelligence and Culture, where she spoke to Canadian politicians and stakeholders to make sure policy reflects the value of Canadian artists’ contributions. For her, that means no text and data mining exception to copyright law, which would allow AI companies to scrape copyrighted music without consent or licensing fees.

SOCAN reached a record revenue of $578 million and distributed $511.9 million to Canadian rightsholders last year while celebrating its 100th anniversary. As it looks towards its next hundred, the music rights organization has put a focus on strengthening the member experience and creating a community with the industry and member songwriters, composers and publishers. Cameron Kennedy was promoted to chief membership officer in late 2025 to grow programs and initiatives like the SOCAN Academy, the SOCAN Awards, the SOCAN Polaris Song Prize and SOCAN’s song camps. In addition to launching Music Creator Day with Canadian legend Joni Mitchell, the organization also introduced the SOCAN 100 Songwriter Series, Black Music Songwriters’ Circle and Indo-Canadian Song Camp in Mumbai, creating more opportunities for emerging artists while welcoming new diverse voices to its membership. Meanwhile, SOCAN and its CEO Jennifer Brown became a crucial voice against unlicensed AI-generated music, creating a national campaign supported by artists like Sarah McLachlan, Barenaked Ladies' Ed Robertson, Mac DeMarco and more.

Jean-François Renaud is one of the major executive voices pushing Quebec’s francophone music scene to its biggest scale. He founded music agency Concertium in 2009 to promote French-language music and continues to create new opportunities, notably through his acquisition of ticketing and tech company Groupe iCible in 2025. Renaud also acquired majority shares in Spectra Music and Agence evenko the same year, taking leadership of ab agency booking artists at Montreal’s biggest concert halls. Since 2022, he’s also been the chair of ADISQ, the institution promoting and celebrating Quebec’s global and local impact through its annual Félix Awards. Together, he’s helping create cultural vitality, national identity and economic growth for Quebec’s music industry.

Paul Shaver operates at the centre of one of the music industry’s most important — and often least visible — systems: making sure songwriters and publishers actually get paid. As president of the Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency (CMRRA) and SX Works, Shaver oversees the data, licensing and royalty infrastructure that powers music rights management across Canada and beyond. At a time when streaming, AI and digital platforms are making rights ownership increasingly complex, the organization has become critical to ensuring accurate compensation flows through the ecosystem. Under Shaver’s leadership, CMRRA has increased collections and client distributions by more than 120% since 2020 while distributing over $94 million in mechanical royalties in the last year alone. In 2025, the organization celebrated its 50th anniversary by distributing $94 million in royalties to publishers and self-published songwriters in 2025.

While country music is sometimes seen as an insular genre, Amy Jeninga and the Canadian Country Music Association (CCMA) are helping expand its reach in Canada and on the global stage. Since 2021, Jeninga has led strategic direction, daily operations and long-term growth as president of CCMA. Working with the organization’s board of directors, she’s helped ensure the genre’s institutional recognition reflects the ww wt177 y mathcharacter of the country — like adding a francophone category to its CCMA Awards in 2025, and elevated its flagship Country Music Week in Kelowna, B.C to give a stage to emerging acts alongside heavyweights and bring various industry sectors together. The event reportedly brought $17.7 million in economic impact and showcased the Western country scene. Many new voices are leading the way in country in Canada — like Josh Ross, Cameron Whitcomb and Owen Riegling, all big winners at this year’s awards — and the CCMA is putting them at the forefront.